Landscape Photography with large format

Omega 45E, Caltar 210mm f-6.8 lens, Fuji Velvia 50, Bogen tripod and pan/tilt head. Incident metering, 1/60 sec at f-22.

Large format cameras are excellent for landscape photography. The larger image shows more detail of the landscape with more brilliant colors. Camera movements let you control depth-of-field much better than 35mm or medium format cameras. You can record foreground and background objects in sharp focus. With smaller formats, you need to stop the lens down to its minimum aperture to get everything in sharp focus. Even this is not always enough to bring everything into sharp focus. You can use a monorail camera which offers more movements, but if you are going to do a lot of landscape photography, a field camera is easier to use and carry. A standard 150mm or 210mm will cover many shots. A wide-angle lens, either 90mm or 135mm is a good addition to your system, and used for including foreground objects as well as showing a wider view of the landscape. You may need to use a bag bellows with your wide-angle lens. If you do most of your photography with your large format, you may want to add a telephoto lens for distant objects in a landscape. A 300mm or a 350mm lens can isolate part of the landscape and show a closer view. Make sure you have enough extension for your telephoto lens to focus on infinity.

Omega 45E, Caltar 210mm f-6.8 lens, Fuji Velvia 50, Bogen tripod and pan/tilt head. Incident metering, 1/30 sec at f-22.

Remember that lenses yield the same depth-of-field regardless of the format. A 150mm lens is considered a telephoto in 35mm format, but it is standard in large format. Both formats have the same depth-of-field at the same f-stop with same focal length lenses. You will need to focus carefully and use a small aperture, f-22 or smaller and use your camera movements to have a good depth-of-field. Composing an upside down image takes time to get used to. It is best to view the scene with a 35mm camera and lens before setting up your shot. Use different focal lengths and view the landscape with your 35mm from different angles. Once you found a good composition, set up your view camera and compose your shot. Focus on the landscape and use your camera movements to increase depth-of-field. Use a loupe to check sharpness at corners and center of the ground glass. Look for a strong foreground, such as flowers or big rocks. Try Rear tilt to exaggerate the size of your foreground object. Calculate your exposure by reading the most important part of the scene. Use a spot meter (your 35mm's spot meter can be used) or an incident light meter. It takes sometime to get use to viewing the image up side down and backwards. Designing a landscape with a view camera is a slow process, but the final result is rewarding. See also Landscape & Landscapes with medium format

Recommended reading: Large Format Nature Photography

A manual on taking large-format nature photographs, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jack Dykinga. The author merges photojournalism techniques with large-format photography to create spectacular images of nature and remote locations. In order to capture the intricacies, patterns, textures, tonal range and colors that made Dykinga famous, he uses a 4x5 camera, film, lenses, light meters, filters, colors, composition, digital backs and tripods. Photographers will also learn how to work with the weather, keep images organized and maintain their personal vision, as expressed in more than 200 photographs of Dykinga's own work.